


A Working Condition

by saavik13



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alien Biology, F/F, F/M, Gender Identity, Gender non-conformity, Hedge magic, M/M, Multi, Odin (Marvel)'s A+ Parenting, Sex Magic, Thor (Marvel) is Not Stupid
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-20
Updated: 2019-03-16
Packaged: 2019-06-13 15:03:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 10,998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15367224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saavik13/pseuds/saavik13
Summary: When they were little, Thor tried his best to protect his brother.  It did not always work, but Loki was grateful none the less.  But they are a long lived race and distance builds between even the closest of bonds.Darcy has always known what she was, but never thought she would find a place, or a people, that understood. Then one large blond god runs smack into the front of her truck.  Perhaps things can be both complicated and good? She wouldn't know but she'll sure as hell give it a go.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This one promises to be a little windy and a little complicated but then what do you expect with a polyamorous relationship built with multiple aliens, one of whom randomly changes genders, and entire tower of superheros? And one half-starved hedge witch for flavor.
> 
> Fair warning - I'm not writing smut with this. So if you just want PWP it's not the right work. Just letting you know right up front.
> 
>  
> 
> _“ I don’t believe an accident of birth makes people sisters or brothers. It makes them siblings, gives them mutuality of parentage. Sisterhood and brotherhood is a condition people have to work at. " - Maya Angelou_

It is perhaps not the worst slight that Thor has heard his brother suffer. It is, in the grand scale of such things, a minor insult, one easily handled with a good solid fist, or it would have been if the words had come direct and from one their age. But given that they were overheard only by chance, and delivered by an adult, a visiting dignitary no less, there is little they can do for it. Some prank, perhaps, carefully thought out and delivered on the eve of their departure, and only if the risk seemed negligible – for Loki is always careful to make sure his pranks are well timed, and well concealed, and many do not even know it was anything but chance that has delivered them to whatever public humiliation Loki thought a fitting punishment. But this, Thor cannot think of a fitting punishment for the cruel and heartless man that has put such an expression on his baby brother’s face.

It is all Thor can do to steer his brother into the quietest, darkest, corner of the library, well away from any and all eyes, before the tears come. Many in the court would chide him for such a display, for even though Loki is a child, he is a boy child and tears are beaten out of even princes long before this age – on all but Loki, for his tears seem an endless stream and while he’s learned to hide them from everyone but Thor they do not, and cannot stop. Thor doesn’t think they should, for why is a woman allowed her tears and a man not? Is a man that feels as deeply as to be moved to tears, is he not doubly brave for risking such a punishment, such social shame? Is he not more a man for refusing to give up something so fundamental as disappointment, as pain, as hurt? For Thor is certain that the grown-ups around them feel no less than Loki and himself, they only cover their sorrows with anger and the pain they cause others, forcing their ways on the young so they can feel better of their own childhoods. 

Thier father wishes Thor to be like him, to be like all the men of court, and Thor has learned to be brash and boastful, to be violent and to be rash – but he refuses to take joy in the pain of others, and he refuses to give up all that he is to achieve their weak goals. For what care do they honestly have of the third prince to the thrown? Or the fourth? They care not for the spare sons of Odin, begat as a favor to the queen rather than necessity – for Frigga was a second wife, the first long dead, and she wished children of her own. So while they are third and fourth in the heart of their father they are first in their mother’s, equal and loved, cherished and wanted in hers, of that Thor is certain.

Odin wishes for Loki to be everything different from what he is. For Loki is pale and sickly, too skinny and too weak to start training on the field. Thor tried to remind their father that Loki was almost four years younger than Thor, he could not possibly be expected to keep up with his older brother. But Odin would not listen, not to Thor, or to Loki, or even to his Queen or advisors. And Loki’s magic, which Thor found wonderous, and that their mother cherished, Odin reviled. Loki could never please their father, and while everyone but Frigga tried to tell Thor it was his brother’s fault, Thor knew it was Odin’s. For Loki may not be like the other boys of court, but he was Loki, and Thor loved him just as he was.

“Was it true? It couldn’t be true.” Loki finally whispered, pulling his thin legs up to rest his head on them. “It was just palace gossip.”

Thor wished it was so, and some part of himself wanted to lie to Loki but lies would not help his brother. “I do not think it was without some kernel of truth, brother.”

Loki’s head raised, his keen sharp eyes fastening on his elder brother for the first time since the overheard Lord, “You know something?”

“I suspect.” Thor admitted, moving to settle next to his brother, taking his cooler hands in his own. “I was very little when you arrived. They thought I was too little to remember. I heard father say so.”

“When I was born?”

Thor shook his head sadly. “No, when you arrived. For mother had never been heavy like the other ladies of court before a birth, and then you were there, in the middle of the night, with no word or preparation given to your coming. I did not know from where or how, but I knew enough to know it was not from our mother you came, and that you had not been expected.”

Loki pondered this, the trails of his tears still visible on his pale cheeks. “So you’ve known all this time?”

“I’ve known that they lie to us, Loki, as you know. But I know you are my brother, whether you came from the same womb as I matters not.” Thor tried to smile but failed, yet he still pulled his brother closer. “I tried to put it out of my mind, for you did not need the truth till now.”

“If I did not come from mother, why does she love me and father not?” It was asked without emotion, and Thor knew that somehow that was sadder than the question itself.

“I thought perhaps you were born of a tryst father had with another lady of court.” Thor admitted. “But then why would he act towards you as he does and mother not? I can make no sense of it.”

Loki was quiet for a long moment. “I heard once, in the kitchens, when I was trying to hide so I could get some extra bread,” Thor snorted slightly at that, knowing well how much Loki could eat and how it never seemed enough, “two of the servants, they said something, about a prince that might be a prince removed, and they mentioned Baldr with a laugh.”

“Perhaps a grandson then instead of a son?” Thor nodded. “That could explain his anger perchance, if he thought you a living reminder of his favorite’s folly. Mother would care not where you came, only that you had need of her love and her care and would give it freely as she does to any and all, and in doing so grow to love you as she has. But it matters little to me if we share one parent or none, if our blood is related at all or distant as Midgard, you are my brother.”

“They all laugh at me. Now I know why. A prince that is not a prince.” Loki rubbed his eyes tiredly on his knee. “I am nothing to Asgard.”

“You are a Prince of Asgard.” Thor admonished, pulling his younger brother to his feet. “You are everything you wish to be, my mighty brother. And I shall always be at your side, ready to help you.”

“Until father orders you away, to battle, where I cannot follow.” Loki sighed and looked down at his tiny frail hands. “I have not your strength.”

“A warrior needs not strength when he possesses your wit and magic.” Thor did not care if magic was a woman’s art, it was useful and he loved his brother’s magic. “I would that I had your gifts rather than my own.”

Loki’s smile was soft and pained. “You would find them not gifts at all.”

It is sometime time later, after the leisure of true youth has been left behind for the rigors of their training that Thor realizes the true breadth of what was hidden from them. For often the two brothers would sleep beside one another, seeking comfort where they found none with the others of the palace, and in doing so Thor was thankfully there to see and help to hide. Loki, in the middle of the night, had transformed! Rather than his strikingly pale and long limbed brother, there was in his place a startling beauty of a woman, graceful and pale, wearing his brother’s night clothes and looking as confused as Thor felt.

“What has happened?” Loki asked, distraught, looking down upon himself. “Thor, is this some trick?”

“No.” Thor admitted, eyeing the sky outside lightening with fear. They would be due soon on the training fields. “Did your seidr take this form on accident?”

“I…” Loki looked frightened and he clutched the bedclothes tighter. “What do I do?”

“I will fetch mother. She must know.”

Their mother did not. She looked as fearful as they upon seeing her son become a daughter and for all her centuries of magic she had no more answer for them than Loki, nor dare they bring another into their confidence. They hid Loki, made excuses, and it took a solid week for him to change back. It happened several more times in their youth, always uncontrolled and unexpected, and it was not until they were nearly 500 that he seemed to gain control of it, and with it the physical maturity so late in arriving. 

Loki grew in height, enough to match his brother, but he could not, no matter how hard he trained, reach the same bulk and mass. He simple could not build the physique Asgardans were known for. Thor was not troubled by this – for his brother was easily as strong as he was, a useful deceit in battle to fool your enemy, but Loki was troubled. He ate far more than the rest, and still he hungered, but not a pound could seem to be added to his wiry frame.

Loki made do with what the universe had given him. He learned to fight with skill and cunning, faster than the others, more agile by far, and while Thor praised his brother, their father did not seem to notice his victories in training. Nor when they went to battle for the first time, or the second. It was always tails of Thor that were shared in the great hall and Loki drifted into shadow. Perhaps that would have been the worst of it had not their brothers fallen.

Both their brothers – dead within mere years of each other, both to folly and ruin of their own making. Now Thor was crown prince, Loki the spare, and while their father finally paid attention to his youngest son it was not the boon both boys had once thought. For their father was harsh in his lessons more often than not, determined that both should be prepared for the throne for having lost two sons Odin did not wish to court chance with the remainder. They learned too that he pressured their mother to bear another child, and though she tried she could not, and Frigga wept over the still born body of their sister while her husband sat on his thrown headless of his wife’s tears. 

Loki grew to hate Odin, as he held his mother, and as he watched his golden brother bow to the blows and wishes of a harsh king and harsher father. Thor wanted so desperately to please he lost all he was to the image his father wished, more tragic for Loki knew it was that very image that had led to their bothers’ deaths, and would lead Thor to a similar fate. He told Thor this much, but they were young and Thor thought the best way to protect his brother was to be the focus of their father’s attention.

Perhaps it was. But then who was there to protect Thor?


	2. Knit for the Keeping

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The idea of hedge magic has been creeping into fandom for a while know and it basically, for those of you new to the idea, is that there's a kind of magic inherent in domestic activities. It can be very subtle - like a little extra feeling of warmth in a blanket made with love - or your mom's cupcakes tasting better because SHE Made them for YOU. Or it can be epic. I'm borrowing the idea for this story and it will slowly reveal it's limits and it's power as things progress.

Darcy Lewis wasn’t particularly talented at things people appreciated. She wasn’t great at math; she didn’t have a lot to say about science that didn’t involve fiction on the end; she had no real talent with computers. What she was good at, was very private, and not something she thought it good for the Men in Black to find out about.

But it did make it possible to fake a pretty good ID in a pinch, as long as the need was real and it wasn’t for herself. And it helped her to keep her pet scientists wrangled. So Darcy wasn’t going to complain. Better yet, they didn’t even notice, which meant she didn’t have to explain, and that was just as well. People didn’t like it when they found out the truth, and Darcy just preferred to work without the drama. Thor had seemed to realize something, but he’d kept his mouth shut, and had, much to her surprise, only nodded at her with a hint of respect once or twice, when she did something small just to be helpful. He’d even hesitantly asked her if she could use assistance, which was _very_ tempting. It was nice to have a little acknowledgement after all, but it wasn’t worth the risk. Besides, Jane wouldn’t have understood.

It was just a lot, sometimes, to do so much without any kind of recharge. At least at Culver she could find a quick little boost, but in the middle of butt-fuck-nowhere? With SHIELD crawling all over the town? Darcy was running dangerously low.

Still, with everything going on, and the sinking feeling in her stomach that that was just the _start_ of bad things to come, Darcy wasn’t going to shirk her duties, no matter how tired she was. Something was coming, something bad, and Jane was at the center of it. It wasn’t much, but it was the most she could do, so Darcy put all she had into each and every stich. “Purl for protection, knit for the keeping” she muttered to herself as the scarf slowly wove itself from her needles.


	3. Regifting saves the day

When Jane Foster was pulled with Thor into Asgard she clutched tightly to the scarf Darcy had given her for Christmas. Why, Jane wasn’t sure. But Darcy had looked so earnest when she’d handed it to her, made her promise to wear it if things got weird, and to never take it off till it was over – whatever that meant – and Jane had promised, because it was important to Darcy and Darcy was her friend…. And this, this definitely counted as weird.

Even when they gave her a dress to wear she kept the scarf wrapped around her neck, despite the scornful looks of the handmaids Frigga had sent to help her change. Jane just clutched it tighter. 

It was probably her clutching at it that brought it to the attention of Frigga, who smiled softly as she stepped forward. “This decoration around your neck, did someone make it for you? Your mother perhaps?”

“Darcy.” Jane said softly, drawing back almost unconsciously to keep the queen’s fingers from brushing it. 

“The girl that my son says felled him with lightening?” Frigga smiled and turned to Thor. “You did not tell me you met a hearth witch on your travels. I did not know such things survived on Midgard still.”

“Darcy does not make plain her workings.” Thor shifted, almost nervous. “I wished to speak with her more, but it was always Loki who understood such things and not I. Jane and the others did not seem to know.”

“Know what?” Jane clutched the scarf tighter. “What are you talking about?”

“That decoration is a powerful talisman, Jane.” Frigga smiled, light dancing slightly in her eyes. “It is very powerful but so different from anything I could weave. Magics similar yet apart. This Darcy must be a powerful witch to create it, and must care deeply for you to put so much of herself into a gift of protection. Even now it works to limit the effect of the aether on you.”

“I didn’t have it, when I went into the portal.” Jane confessed softly. “I’d left it in the car by accident when we were investigating. Darcy tossed it to me just before Thor took me here.”

“I do not know if it is powerful enough to have saved you from this infection,” Frigga frowned slightly. “But it was careless of you to leave such a thing behind you when facing the unknown. Your friend put much work and care into this gift, to protect one she considers family. This magic is different from mine, but that at least is the same.” Her look turned serious. “Yet I feel a weariness in the working. She has not been tended properly. Why have you left her to flounder? Is it forbidden amongst your people to assist another woman?”

“What?”

Thor cleared his throat. “Mother, I do not think it is the Midgardian way to discuss magic so frankly, especially not of the kind Lady Darcy wields. She did not once mention it, even when she expended her energies in aid to my cause when I was in exile. I attempted to speak with her, regarding such, but she deflected my efforts.”

“Wait, you think Darcy is a witch? Like magic?” Jane clutched her knitted scarf, adding up Darcy’s behaviors over their time together. “Oh that poor girl! She has to be so scared all the time.” Jane sank down onto one of the benches. “I never even noticed!’

“Scared?” Frigga asked, sinking to sit next to her. “Why would she be scared?”

Jane reached for Thor’s hand when he offered it. “It wasn’t that long ago, only a couple centuries, when people were burned alive for being suspected of witchcraft. Some places in the world, it can still mean being hunted and killed. Witch is an insult children hurl at one another, something frightful and dangerous. If Darcy does have magic she’d have to be really careful who she let know about it. If the wrong people found out, they might try and capture her, maybe experiment on her. I’ve heard terrible stories about the things done to anyone that shows a bit of special ability.”

Thor’s entire face darkened. “You mean they hurt those with magic? There are people on your world that would hurt the Lady for her gift?”

“Yes.” Jane swallowed. “There are. I didn’t realize witches were real, but there are others, with gifts. We call them mutants. The government has done horrible things to them, experiments, prison. When I was a little girl, men came and took the neighbor boy, shoved him in this big metal van. We never saw him again. He’d gotten upset at school, and he made the lights flicker. When I was in college there was a big scandal. The place they took him, it was horrible, Thor. Reporters found out about it, got pictures. They’d done things to kids, to try and… I don’t know what they intended to do. But the neighbor boy, I recognized him in the pictures, at least what was left of him.” Jane looked away. “Death would have been kinder than what they did. I tried to go visit him, in the hospital they took the survivors too. He couldn’t even hold his head up. They’d broken his neck to keep him docile. If Darcy has any gifts, she’s got to be scared of it happening again, no matter what promises people make.”

Frigga’s eyes were hard. “This cannot be tolerated. We have left Midgard to its own care for long enough. If they would go after those blessed by the Tree with such cruelty. Thor,” Frigga turned to her son. “Get Loki.”

“Mother?” Thor stood up. “Father will…”

“I do not care what your father wants right now. He has kept me from my son, I have yet to even _see_ him with my own eyes. Now the aether is awake, and our kind is _hunted_ on Midgard. No, we need your brother.” Frigga pulled herself to her full impressive height. “Your Queen demands this.”

“Yes, mother.” Thor bowed. “I will retrieve him.” Thor did not seem upset about the task, rather excited in truth, a bright smile lighting his face.

Thor left in a flurry and Jane sat very still. “What’s going on?”

“Odin has been negligent in his duties to the Nine realms – too engrossed in the business of Asgard to see what is transpiring in our sister realms. He needs reminded of his duty.” Frigga stated calmly, too calmly. “It is my duty as his queen to remind him. Heed the happenings here, Jane, for if you are sure in your business with Thor, you may one day have to undertake such a reminder yourself.” The queen waved her hand almost dismissively, clearly not as concerned about her son taking up with a human, as Odin had been. “Now, Thor will have to get around several layers of security. It is best we wait somewhere Odin will not dare disturb us. My chambers?”

Jane nodded, having thought they were already _in_ the queen’s rooms, but never the less rose and followed her. They must have been in some sort of anti-chamber because the queen was taking her deeper into the palace through several connected rooms until they finally reached a much smaller room, with a spinning wheel to one side of a reflective pool that spilled out to the edge of a grand balcony on the other. 

“This is my private place. Odin, by the very definition of our marriage contract, must not pass it’s doorway without my express permission – which I have never given.” Frigga smiled, a little like the pictures Jane had seen of Loki in New York, and sat down on a cushion. “Loki, however, has always had entrance here, and Thor I granted passage to only within the last year.” Frigga considered the room. “The furniture was too delicate for his roughness I’m afraid.”

Jane was about to comment on that further when an alarm sounded and Frigga jumped to her feet. Her arm went out reflectively to block Jane from the door to the room, and then her image shuddered, a golden light flowing over her causing her dress to disappear and armor to take its place. She stood, eyes hardening, gazing at the door to the room with something like anger.

“Did Thor set off the alarm getting Loki?” Jane asked, standing to move closer to the queen’s back. “Is Odin on the way here?”

“No, child.” Frigga drew a sword from her side and motioned for Jane to get behind her. “Odin knew it was only a matter of time before Thor or I freed Loki. The alarm on his cell is silent and goes only to Odin himself. This is a general alarm. The city itself is under attack.” She’d no sooner said as much as the entire building shook and a golden dome rose up outside the window. “The shields are trying to activate.” Frigga explained, her tone clipped. “And failing to engage. They are coming for what is inside you.”

Jane clutched her scarf tighter. “Should we, I don’t know, meet up with more people?”

“Loki and Thor will come here post haste. It is better we stay in place. I am not without skill.” Frigga brandished her sword with a slightly wicked smile. “And I have no ridiculous concerns about honor in battle.” A second later there was a swirl of air and suddenly there were four Friggas where there had been one. 

“I see where Loki gets it.” Jane muttered, and backed into a corner. With another wave of her hand Frigga conjured a duplicate Jane to stand beside her.

“Hide yourself, girl.” The queen commanded. There was the sound of sword play in the hall, and running feet getting closer. 

Implosively Jane whipped the scarf off her head and tossed it to the first of the Frigga’s. “You need that more than me right now.” Before she darted under a bench.

Frigga’s shocked expression morphed into determination as the door burst open and a large black creature stalked inside. Rather than risking Jane’s location, she wrapped the scarf over her shoulders and met the foe, the new addition to her outfit copying over to her duplicates instantly.

She battled the large creature for several long minutes, her duplicates weaving in and out of the fray, disappearing as swords struck them only to reform instantly several feet away, the only way to differentiate the real Frigga being her sword making contact. Jane was starting to panic as Frigga’s strength started to waver slightly, her illusions getting slower to reform, when Thor and Loki burst into the room. Thor brandished his hammer, preparing to strike, when the weapon of the monster made contact with his mother’s side, driving her to the ground. The burst of lightening struck the creature and Loki drove his knife into it, killing it instantly, before both men collapsed onto the ground on either side of the Queen. 

Jane’s double and the other Friggas disappeared and Jane inched out from her hiding spot.”

“Mother!” Thor wailed, and Jane could see real fear in both brothers’ eyes.

Frigga groaned and sat up slowly to lean back against Loki. “I’m alright, mostly.” She pulled a hand away from her side, coated in blood and then put it back, to keep pressure on the wound. “It’s a graze, shattered my armor.” She reached forward with her free hand towards Jane. “Come here my girl.” 

Jane moved forward, Thor shifting to give her room and took the Queen’s hand. “You saved my life.” Frigga said softly. “Your gift, given so freely to aid me, transferred the magics of protections meant for you. Without it that blade would have struck true.”

Loki’s eyes glittered as he smoothed his fingers over Darcy’s scarf. “This is high magic, carefully woven. Expended now, but still beautiful.”

“The blade exhausted the spell.” Frigga agreed sadly. “I owe you Lady Jane, and the good Lady Darcy for my life. But in gifting me this, you have removed what little protection you had from the aether. It will consume you all the quicker.”

“Well,” Jane sighed heavily. “I’m still alive, you’re alive, I’d say it was worth it. We still have some time to sort this out.”

Thor nodded, tears welling in his overly bright eyes. “Jane,”

“Oh stop blubbering.” Loki admonished, hands hovering over his mother’s side while a green glow rose to cover his hands. “There, how does that feel?”

“Better.” Frigga smiled and cupped her younger son’s cheek. “Well enough to last me through the coming argument with your father.” She shook her head. “I know the plan you hold, my son,” she looked to Thor with sad eyes. “I fear it will not go as you hope, but it will at least be better than your father’s. Go, now, while you have the option. And when you have achieved your aims, I ask you both to see to the Lady Darcy. She has done this family service.” Her gaze switched to Loki. “I love you, my son, chosen of my heart. Have no doubt in that no matter the darkness you have traveled. I chose to love you, my Loki, my darling baby boy. I _chose you. _I will always choose you.” She clasped his hand tightly. “Now, go, while you can. And by the Norns do not return here until I bid you, for the sake of your freedom if not your life.”__


	4. Matter into Energy

Loki kept looking at Jane, with an expression of confusion and not a little distaste, as they waited for the right gap in patrols to make for the portal. Finally she snapped, “What is it?”

“The hearth magic you gave mother,” he asked, his eyes glittering, “Who was it that wove it?”

“Darcy.” Jane rubbed tiredly at her eyes and Thor gave her a look of concern. She tried to smile at him in reassurance but it must not have been enough because he came to sit next to her, taking up her hand. “She was with Thor and I, when the robot thing came down.”

“The short female, with the dark hair?” Loki scrunched his brow. “She does not present as the powerful seidr she must be.”

“They hide.” Thor advised, with a dark look in his eyes. He shared what Jane had told Frigga earlier and Loki’s expression darkened further.

“Mother is right. This cannot be tolerated.” He shook his head. “But there is little I can do for the course of your world’s magic without doing that which would land me back in opposition with your Avengers.” He paused and gave a strange look to Thor. “But I can repay Lady Darcy for her weaving.”

“Darcy never takes money for her knitting.”

Thor shifted uncomfortably. “A hearth witch is not paid in gold, Jane, but in the exchange of energy.”

“I don’t understand.”

Thor looked helplessly at his brother and Loki sighed. “Magic is no difference from your science in that you cannot create from nothing – all things must start as one and be transmuted to another. Matter into energy, energy into matter. You have this theory yes?”

Jane nodded and Loki continued, “When a hearth witch weaves she is using her own energy to enfold her will into the object she creates – a spell if you will. The difference between my sorcery and a hearth witch’s weaving is that hers requires an anchor upon which to rest. A hearth witch cannot change energy into matter as I can, she simply transmutes one form of energy into another and places it into a vessel. While I can mimic that effect, I cannot actually weave into an anchor in the same way.”

“So Darcy put her own energy into the scarf?” Jane asked. “And that energy acted out her will, to protect me and through that Frigga?”

“Essentially. It is an elementary explanation. The physics, if you will, are somewhat more complicated but require a great deal more understanding of magical theory than I have time to impart in our current situation.” Loki sneered slightly. “Many fools believe that hearth magics are weaker than sorcery, because their application is to the uneducated more limited. But, in truth, hearth magics can be much stronger and more lasting than sorcery, since once the energy is woven into the vessel it does not decay and cannot be removed. It is only when the energy has been activated to its purpose does it begin to be consumed. Sorcery, despite all our attempts to overcome its limitations, must be continually renewed, tied into an energy source to feed it. Left to its own devices sorcery will weaken and break apart soon enough. It is weaving that lasts. The gift the Lady Darcy gave you, had it not been consumed in the protection of mother, could have been handed down to your children’s children’s children just as strong and as sure as the day she created it for you – until the end of days.”

“Mother is adept at both sorcery and weaving. It is exceedingly rare that one should have both talents.” Thor advised. “It is why Midgardians once considered her the goddess of hearth and home, marriage and motherhood. She can see in her weaving the fates that lay before us.”

“It is often more a curse than a blessing.” Loki admitted softly. “But, to the point. To weave requires the witch to leave her energies in her creation. While a sorcerer can draw from ambient energies that are free or lay within the ground, a hearth witch must draw only from herself. This is why it is a woman’s gift alone – it is created within her, as an act of life’s creation is created within.”

“So to repay her you funnel energy to her, directly?” Jane’s forehead scrunched in thought. “But Thor mentioned he’d offered to help her and he’s not a sorcerer right?”

Loki’s expression was a mix of glee and smugness. “To pass energy to a hearth witch does not require the giver to be anything other than willing, Jane dear. It is not magical energy that recharges her, but the energies created by the sharing of life’s most ecstatic experience.”

Jane blinked. “Sex. You mean…” she made a hand motion that turned Thor red and made Loki cackle.

“Exactly.” Loki advised when he caught his breath. “Most hearth witches have a fairly large circle who act regularly to keep their energy levels at peak. Typically families or communities of a sort build up around them.”

“Somehow I don’t see Odin being enthusiastic about his wife banging half the court.”

Thor actually choked. “Jane!”

She shrugged. “You said she was a hearth witch.”

“She isn’t wrong, Thor.” Loki smirked. “And no, father did attempt to limit mother’s access but found, after a few centuries, that a half starved hearth witch was worse than being cockholded.” Thor rested his head in his hands to hid his face. “They compromised. Her handmaidens are more than servants.”

“Ah. He’s down for the lesbian action then, typical male.” Jane rolled her eyes. “So, Darcy turned down Thor?” Jane’s eyes widened slightly. “I find that unlikely.”

“She did not wish to come between you and I.” Thor admitted with a slight grimace. “She said you had called dibs.”

“Dibs works on the last cookie and riding shotgun – not on Norse gods. It’s every girl for herself.” Loki snickered at that and Jane gave him a tired smile. “But really, I’m not the jealous type. Just don’t’ do anything behind my back. Besides, we haven’t even had a date, I’m not exactly expecting fidelity.”

“Which is good because he’s not capable of it.” Loki advised and seemed unperturbed at Thor’s glare. “Prince’s aren’t exactly renowned for celibacy.”

Jane snorted. “Good because neither are scientists.”

Thor looked startled for a second before he sighed. “What is fair for one is fair for the other.”


	5. Supervillian cuddles

Loki did honestly consider the many ways he could escape from Thor, and had he not still had flecks of his mother’s blood on his armor, he might have done so. But the sight of her, injured but alive, thanks to the weary hearth witch attached to his brother’s woman, made it impossible for him to slip away. Loki was many things, but he did not abandon a debt. And Thor, besuited with the Lady Jane as he was, would only reluctantly bed the witch. And, while he had not lied, it did not take a sorcerer to aid a witch, it did mean he could impart a great deal more energy in the transference, even, if he so wished, create a temporary channel for her to access the energies around her, lending his abilities to hers for a time. Not that he would. Not unless it would benefit him.

When they made it back to London, to the chaos there, he caught his first sight of her. She was magnificent in the battle that raged, not for her ability to fight, but her fierce heart and the quick weavings he could see spinning out from her fingers. She was no sorcerer, true, but she could do things with hearth magics he had never seen, anchoring them to already created items rather than having to imbue them at the moment of creation. He suspected her weavings were stronger when done from her own hand, but never the less he saw her workings save many a civilian caught in their midst.

When the battle ended, they staggered to the home of Jane’s mother, and while Thor saw to his lady, Loki was trying to summon enough energy to do as he had promised, when the flushed face of the hearth witch came into view, and a small hand pushed him down into a chair.

“Sit before you fall. How bad is that wound?” she pointed to his side and then grimaced. “Drop the illusion, shit head. I don’t want you bleeding on the carpet. Let me work.”

“As the lady wills.” He dropped the illusion with a sigh, glad to let go of it for the drain on his energy if nothing else. The wound was bad, but not fatal, and he had already started to heal. The illusion had been for Thor’s sake, so he would not distract himself in battle over pointless worry. “It will be closed by morning, gone the next day.” He admitted as her tiny fingers prodded the edges.

She hummed and placed a hand directly over it, closing her eyes. “Hold still. I’ll pick the pace up a little.” Her energies were soft, and felt like the brush of wet leaves, and Loki let her weave his very flesh, a most unusual and unique feeling, until he felt her waver slightly. 

“Stop.” He admonished, putting a hand to her shoulder and gently pushing her away. “I will live, and you are exhausted. You have not been tended properly yourself.”

“It’s incredibly hard to get laid when you work 18 hour days.” Darcy’s eyes were silently unfocused. “It’s been better here but today, all the people in the way…” she trailed off.

“Mother recognized what you were from your gift to the Lady Jane.” Loki stood up and slowly started to walk the exhausted witch towards the sleeping chambers. “She gave me direction to thank you personally for your efforts. I see that will have to wait till we are both something other than half dead.”

She chuckled tiredly. “I figured something like that happened. Jane looked at me funny and apologized like twice since you got here. I’d normally be like all up in that offer,” she eyed him up and down with appreciation, “But dude I need sleep first.”

“I can assist minimally in other ways.” Loki offered with a small half smile, and trickled a little green tinged energy to her. “Let’s get you to your bed, my lady.”

“Can I have slightly bloody super villain cuddles?” she blushed as she asked, eyes drifting to the floor. “I mean, I know it’s not exactly, but you, and well I, and I’m soooo tired, and you’re like this green glowy ball of prickly energy, and…and you can’t be really evil, cause Thor loves you, and you saved Janie, and…” He put a finger to her lips to stop the deluge.

“Of course I will lay with you.” He backed away slightly and smirked. “I did just escape prison. Is it not traditional to seek out a woman’s bed?”

She laughed and lightly punched his arm, her body swaying slightly from exhaustion. “Thor said you were funny. God he missed you, for like the two days he was exiled.”

“Thor is like a large puppy that, on occasion, lets lose lightening.” Loki shrugged and moved back to her side to continue to guide her. In the state she was in he was unsure she could even find her own room without tripping over her feet.

Her room was chaos, discarded soiled garments, papers, and empty food stuffs. Evidence of her weaving in the forms of yarn and fleece were scattered about but there was an air of exhaustion lingering in everything. She’d used the very last of her resources to heal him and Loki steered her, half unconscious, to her bed and managed with a slight twist of his own seidr to change her into what passed for nightdress on Midgard. She giggled slightly, likely because she was wearing a truly tiny pair of shorts and nothing more than a scrap of cloth with a picture of a kitten on top, and his own nightclothes were a floor length tunic, but she never the less fell into his embrace, mindful even in her state of his lingering wound. Her energy was so low she had not even the strength to pull from his as he offered it so he instead wrapped her in his seidr, wrapped the entire home with wards to protect them all in slumber, and let sleep take them.


	6. Apples to apples

Morning came with too swift wings, and while Loki would much rather have spent the day in restful repose, or less restful activities with a certain hearth witch, the wards he’d so hastily thrown up the night before were weak and ungrounded. He could not rest properly with so little protection between him and a world that would, in all likelihood, wish him dead if they knew of his return. The Ladies had accepted his presence, in Darcy’s case welcomed it, but they were not the normal for Midgardians and had already experienced contact with Asgard. Lady Jane, he had learned during their brief acquaintance, was pragmatic by nature, more interested in her quest for knowledge than for the siren calls of justice. Lady Darcy, as a hearth witch, was by her very nature apt to judge an individual on first sight and intangible feeling, rather than reputation, and her ease with him was wont to her magic and his twining as easily together on the battlefield and in this, her sister’s home. For now that he had witnessed the two women together he was sure that was relationship between them, if not by blood than by choice and condition. 

What the Lady Darcy saw of worth in him, Loki was unsure but never the less grateful. His mother’s continued love was not proof of his substance, but of her own gift, for once a hearth witch accepted someone as family to be protected it was eternal – never to weaver or change no matter the horrors they may perpetrate. Or what monstrous stock they were originally born. Queen Frigga would forever love her sons, no matter their fates or deeds or failings. Thor, the stupid oaf, would forever love him too though magic bore no part of it. A millennia by each other’s side meant a bond that while stretched, Loki knew was still present. Even if he would break it, and part of him desperately wished too for his brother’s sake, it would not shatter as easily as the great bridge had.

He had never wished Thor harm, in truth his great downfall was all derived from a desire to protect his elder brother, and even in some twisted way sending the Destroyer after him had been the same. For part of Loki had thought even mortal his brother would always be the stronger, and if the unthinkable were to happen, if he was dead, Thor would no longer be in danger from their Father’s plans… In hindsight this was of course insane, but then Loki suspected he had lost what little sanity he had some long years prior. The hole in his heart gave a shudder and he pushed those thoughts away violently. He must set better wards and he could ill afford such indulgent distractions.

Darkness rolled in Loki as he crawled out from the warmth of the new witch’s bed. Memory and fear scuttled in the recesses of his mind, the dark inky corruption that had so consumed him for a time not completely dissipated even with the vile link severed. He would have sought a mind healer, should have, had not Odin dismissed his worth and his health so blithely when Thor returned them to Asgard. Thor he knew had pleaded that there was something the matter – as had Frigga. But no one had come. No one had tended his wounds. And he’d healed slowly in the solitary unending brightness of his prison cell with only his mother’s shadow for company, and while she worried for him, she could not aid him, intangible as shadows were.

Now his one secret, the only one he had left that was his own and not his vile father’s trick, was at risk. Thor of course was ignorant of it, the great buffoon never even noticing. Only dear Frigga knew, but if he was to aid this hearth witch, to keep her and hers safe, to keep Thor safe on this backwater, to repay his debts, then he would most likely be exposed. Before his fall he would have thought nothing worth the risk of this secret, perhaps up to and including the fall of Asgard itself, but now, now it seemed the lesser of all the burdens he bore and one that held a certain level of irony. In truth, he was curious as well. Would she notice? Her magics were different flavored than those of his youth, her seidr colored with her humanity in a way that left it both bitter and sweet in equal confusing parts. She may not be able to tell what was unusual about his.

He had been too weary the night before to check the extent of her own protections but now he took the time to search them out. The warding was disordered but present in the home, clearly they had not spent long in the lodgings, and the witch had had precious little energy to spare. His own wards built in haste the night before had been more made for warning than for keeping out, but her’s were sufficient at least to send the men in the black clothing scuttling past the door they clearly sought to find. Men Loki recognized from the desert, who had tried to guard the hammer, looked now for the ladies and likely for them as well, but the little witch was subtle in her art, misdirecting them so that they could not actually find the door to knock or a window to climb in. But the strength of the wards was weak, tied only to the strength she had to charge them, and with every person who approached and was turned away they were worn down. 

What these men wanted, Loki could well guess, and he was in no mood to entertain their questioning. It was easy work to stroke her seidr, to weave his own strength into hers and anchor it to the stones around them. The house was not as new as most of the structures he had seen on his last two trips to this world, at least a century of life flowed in the stone and brick, giving him something upon which to build. Not enough to create a fortification of any note, but enough to keep these interlopers away. There was power nearby, and if they meant to stay any length of time he could redirect it to feed the wards, but it would require going to the source and building a channel of seidr back, and it seemed an unnecessary risk when he had strength enough from his reserves and from the ambient seirdr that congregated in any city of size to put a minimal barrier. So long as there were no other wielders here they should be undetectable by the science of these mortals.

This home that was not a home was perplexing. Loki did not care for it, and part of him wished to return to the warmth of the disheveled room for at least it held some flicker of personality within the strewn objects, but he did not wish to wake the witch. His wound was healed, her reserves were still slowly rebuilding with the link he had supplied her the night before, and there was no pressing need for her to awaken. She must have been in need of rest, if his tampering with her wards had not roused her, and so too must his brother and his woman for the sun was well up and so far no signs of life had emerged from their space either. 

He picked a book up off the side table, more to stave off boredom than anything, only to put it down with a snarl. All-Speak worked on spoken word but badly if at all on written and it had been some time since he had bothered with the languages of Midgard. The words on the page looked nothing like the pictographic and runic forms he knew them last to have used and he’d had little chance to notice on his last visit that such a change had been wrought. He would have to relearn their tongue if he wished to stay here any length of time and without a translation matrix he had nowhere to begin. It would be easy enough to learn, once he had a form of reference, but for the time being it was not something he wished to spend his morning struggling with. The kitchen was just as mysterious, the majority of what he assumed were foodstuffs were packaged in some sort of clear barrier and while the pictures on the outside held some clue to the contents Loki was loath to risk poisoning himself. Eventually he found a loaf of bread, already sliced of all things, wrapped in similar clear crinkled cloth and made due with that and some sort of fruit that smelled like apples but was an odd shade of green and more bitter than he expected. He had seen the witch work the water system the night before and was able to recreate her movements but the water was tainted with something that smelled terrible and Loki feared to drink it. 

He hated Midgard.


	7. Chapter 7

Darcy woke slowly, the feel of foreign magic heightening around her, but the tone and taste of it spoke of Loki, who had so kindly given her a boost the night before, so she rolled over and let it be. Whatever he was up to it didn’t give off the feel like it should be anything to worry about, and she was tired. So tired. She fell asleep again and when next she woke it was to the smell of burning and Jane’s cursing.

“God damn it.” Jane banged something in the kitchen. “Darcy makes this look easy.”

“I believe you burned it.” Loki sounded amused. “Perhaps less of the glowing red lines?”

“It’s toast. Why can’t I make toast?” Jane lamented. 

“It is a good thing Thor has servants if he means to keep you.” Loki advised, attempting to sound serious but failing slightly. 

The smoke alarm started to go off and Darcy gave up and went out into the hall with a towel to wave the smoke away from the sensor before the fire department showed up. “Put the toaster down, Jane. I’ll do it. Geesh, you could have just woken me up the normal way instead of attempting biological warfare.” Darcy returned to her room long enough to pull on some mostly clean clothes and run a brush through her hair.

When she made it into the kitchen Jane looked sheepish, two pieces of blackened, somewhat smoking still, bread sticking out of the toaster. Thor was happily munching on a box of pop tarts, clearly uncaring about any of it, while Loki leaned against the sink with a smug expression on his face. Darcy sighed heavily.

“Everyone who burns water out of my kitchen.” She pushed past Jane and went to the fridge and started pulling out the meager store of eggs and ham, eyeing the two large men and the six eggs with concern. “We soooo are not equipped for two Asgardian stomachs. Janie, call up that grocery delivery will you?”

“I would advise not.” Loki pushed off from the sink and gestured to the window. “There are men outside clearly seeking us, and they cannot see your door. If a delivery man were to come, they would see him enter where they saw no entry and become suspicious.”

“God damnit.” Darcy snarled and leaned her head against the fridge. “Right – right. Well, we have flour right? Potatoes? Something?”

Jane looked guilty. “It’s London, Darcy, who cooks in London?”

“Beans and toast – if we have bread left?” she asked hopefully. Jane pointed at the toaster. “Okay, well six eggs and a single slice of ham is not going to feed the four of us. It might feed _me_ , maybe.” Darcy grumbled as her stomach made a loud demand. “I used a lot of energy yesterday, scientist lady, I need food. So if we can’t have it delivered we need to go out and get it.”

Jane peaked out the window. “But that’s SHEILD and they will have all sorts of questions.”

“Considering Ian and Erik didn’t make it back here with us, I’m sure they’ve gotten the basics already.” Darcy shrugged. “We leave the boys safe and sound here, and go for food. If they try to stop and question us, we promise an interview after breakfast.”

“I don’t think that will work with the men in black.” Jane argued. “What if we call Barton? Do you think he could get us out of this?”

“With Loki here?” Darcy snorted. “No chance in hell unless I give him the god of chaos’ head on a platter. I need at least two weeks to convince him tall dark and not-exactly-as-evil-as-we-thought wasn’t in his right mind either.”

Thor stopped eating his pop-tart. “My brother was unwell?”

Loki said nothing but turned his back on the room. Darcy reached out a hand to his shoulder in support. “Yeah, Thor buddy, your brother wasn’t well. No offense but it’s kinda obvious.” She’d felt his lingering injuries last night, could feel them now just being in the same room.

“I thought as much.” Thor nodded, a grim expression settling on his features. “I begged father to allow a healer to see to him but he refused. Mother too was denied.” Thor stood up, his chair making a harsh scrap across the floor. “What can we do?”

“Nothing.” Loki admitted, his voice sounding tired and resigned. “Any direct evidence of the control placed on me is gone. And the entity that directed my actions whipped all memory of himself from my mind. I know that I was controlled, but I know not how or exactly who. Odin would never accept my word on the matter and the link is gone.”

“Wait, there’s something out there bad enough to gain control of Loki?” Jane’s eyes were wide. “That’s not good. And why would he want anything to do with Earth? We’re like a backwater aren’t we?”

“The Tesseract was likely the goal.” Thor advised, staring at his brother’s back still turned to the room. “And Loki fell a long way – something that would have killed most Aesir. I doubt he was in any condition to resist the types of magic that can twist the mind. I should have realized that was what ailed him. I am sorry, my brother.”

Loki raised a hand as if to wave the concern away but dropped it back down to his side. “What is done is done. I suspect Odin realized, which is why he kept the healers from me. It was too convenient a way to get rid of me in the dungeons rather than admit there is an enemy poised to challenge Asgard and her allies. An enemy we are ill prepared to face.” He turned around slowly. “But as to the issue of food, I may have another solution.” With that statement his image wavered and in its place stood a nearly exact replica of the red headed woman from next door, only wearing a green sweater instead of orange. “Will this do?”

“That is soooo cool.” Darcy breathed out. “Can you do that to one of us?”

Loki nodded and passed his hand over Darcy’s head, changing her hair to a straight blond and adding several inches to her height. Her skin darkened slightly to a more olive tone. “This is wicked.” Darcy twirled in a circle, laughing slightly. “Dibs on Loki for shopping!”

“Darcy, do you really think that’s a good idea?” Jane asked, eyeing Loki warily. 

Darcy linked her arm through his. “Janie, all my ideas are brill. Trust the magic users to bring the substance! Tally hoe, Loki my good sir…” she winked. “Or lass. Whatever you feel like at the moment.” 

Thor looked slightly uncomfortable. “Is it wise to go out? Could you not send Darcy by herself?”

Loki shook his head. “Tis illusion, Thor, and to maintain both I will need to stay in proximity to the Lady Darcy.”

“Chill with the court talk or they’ll be on us in a second.” Darcy advised, “Now Jane, fork over the credit card and we’ll do the heavy lifting.”

Loki tried his best to seem as if he knew where they were going as Darcy pulled him down the street. London, it seemed, was a fairly resilient place with many of its residents going about their business as if a large invasion had not taken place the day before. Chunks of buildings and road were destroyed and crews were already in place working to repair it. It was impressive, the resilience of these people, and Loki wished… 

It was futile to wish for such things. 

Darcy hummed as she pushed a large cart through the establishment that seemed to have replaced a market. Various foods were stacked in bins, meat under glass along one wall, the sellers conspicuously absent. “If you see something you want just add it to the cart.” Darcy advised, hefting two large round fruits of some kind and then sniffing them before selecting one. “There was a run on milk and bread, of course,” Darcy rolled her eyes. “Everyone buys milk and bread whenever there’s a disaster. But there’s plenty of fresh veg left and I bet they didn’t touch the flour.” 

By the time she was done selecting food the cart was overflowing. Loki eyed the number of bags the servant at the front of the establishment placed their purchases into dubiously. “Perhaps we should find alternative transportation back.”

Darcy smiled slightly and then, once their purchases were complete, pushed the cart now full of bags out the doors and around the side of the building. She carefully looked about, eyeing the placement of small black protrusions from the building before angling the cart just so. She closed her eyes and Loki felt the magic before he saw it. The bags shifted in place, twisted in bonds of her seidr, and disappeared. She wavered slightly on her feet before picking up the lone remaining bag and then started pushing the cart back to the return. “I’m out of practice.” She admitted with a slight grimace. “That took more out of me than it should have.”

“You are dangerously low on energy.” Loki advised. “You should have let me.”

Darcy shrugged. “You are injured. I’m just tired. Let’s not stretch either of us too far until we have a chance to recharge. You are keeping up the illusions. Let me handle bag transport.” She paused in her walk. “Can you tweak the illusions some? I’m sure SHEILD marked us using that card and they may already have gotten the security footage.”

Loki wasn’t exactly sure what she meant, but it was easy enough to shift their appearances slightly, using the existing illusion as a model, altering height and weight and clothing enough to fool anyone looking for them based on the previous versions.

They made it back to the apartment to find Jane and Thor staring at the bags that had appeared on the counters and table. “Brother, I have never seen you send an object without it being attached to your person.”

“I did not.” Loki stated with a slight shrug, dropping their illusions now that they were safe. “The Lady Darcy did so.”

Thor’s eyes widened. “That is not typical for hearth magics.”

“It isn’t?” Darcy frowned then shrugged herself, pulling out bacon and eggs. “I’m mostly self-taught. If there are rules I’m afraid I never learned them.”

Loki watched her prepare the food, his mouth down turned. “Why ever did you need to do such? Was not your mother or aunts able to teach you?”

Jane shook her head as if to stop them from asking but other than a slight stiffening of her shoulders Darcy made no move to stop them from questioning. “My mother,” She started and then took a deep breath as she placed the meat into a pan. “My mother died when I was a baby. My grandmother raised me for a while, she’s the one that taught me what I was and all the basics, but she died when I was ten. I haven’t met another like me since. I know one of grandma’s coven tried to adopt me but the state wouldn’t let her because she had a reputation. I think she slept with too many of the town council men and their wives didn’t appreciate it. But by the time I learned about her she was dead too. I’m afraid witches don’t usually live that long on Midgard.”

On that somber note, Thor chose to change the subject to what they could do next. “These men of SHEILD will not easily forget our last meeting. My brother killed one of their number, the good Son of Coul, and while we would pay wergild gladly, they seem disinclined to accept.”

“I’m afraid the idea of wergild died out on this planet several centuries back.” Jane replied with a grimace. “They will want to lock him up for his crimes.”

“What is the typical term of confinement for such a crime?” Loki asked, honestly considering just submitting to their justice. It could not be worse than his father’s prison could it?

“Twenty to life usually, per person.” Darcy shook her head. “They still don’t have a final death count on New York. If it was just Coulson that would be an option but it’s a lot more than that. Most people would push for the death penalty.”

Thor stood up, ready to fight any who dared, but Jane put a hand on his arm and gently pushed him back into his seat. “Nobody is saying we turn Loki in. We can go on the run, hide or something.”

“No” Loki eyed the two women and his brother. “I will not allow you to put your own lives at risk to save me the inconvenience of paying for my crimes. Perhaps there is some other sort of penance that can be negotiated. Some great work your people require but cannot yet achieve, that I could provide perchance?”

“We tell them the truth.” Darcy spoke up, her eyes glinting slightly. “We do it publicly, not to SHEILD. We get the general population of New York on Loki’s side.”

“Darcy, that’s not going to happen. He wrecked the city!”

“He personally didn’t. Hardly anyone saw him during the battle. There’s that little stunt in Germany that will hurt us be we can try and minimize it.” Darcy pulled out a pencil and a little notebook. “Jane, you take notes. I need to finish cooking.” She handed it over and turned back to cooking apparatus. “Now, first things first we have to get Loki cleaned up. He needs to be as put together as possible….”

Darcy knew her plan was somewhat, okay totally, batshit crazy but it was the only thing they could do. For it to work they’d need allies and there was only one real option for who they needed to start with.

“Darcy!” Clint sounded panicked when her call finally connected. “Where are you? Thor brought Loki to earth…”

Darcy cut him off. “I know, was kinda in the battle dude. And everything’s fine, really, except the flat still has a boil water notice and a bunch of SHEILD flunkies patrolling around it.”

There was a long pause. “They can’t find your flat, Darcy. Tell me you aren’t in there with the crazy ass villain.”

“I’m in here with Jane and the brother’s Asgard.” Darcy admitted, not willing to lie to the archer who happened to be her friend. “Of my own not glowy eyes and choice.”

“Darce,”

“Clint, things are somewhat more complicated than you know.” Darcy knew the call was being monitored, there was only so much she could say. “There’s nothing I can do to convince you that I’m not mind controlled but I need a favor.”

“What.”

“I need Captain America’s phone number.”

“This is not the right time to try and arrange a date!”

“I’m not looking to date the man! I need his help, you ponce.”

Clint’s breathing was ragged over the line. “He’s not available, Darcy. He’s deep into a mission with Nat or they’d have both been in London already. Seriously – he’s not reachable.”

Fuck. “Stark then. Get me Stark.”

“Darce,”

“Loki tried to whammy him, right? In New York? And it didn’t work. So you know if Stark comes in here he’s fairly safe.” Darcy was altering her plan rapidly. “And you don’t really like him so he’s expendable.”

That got Clint to laugh. “I really doubt he’d…”

Clint was cut off with a burst of static. “Reindeer games wants his drink?” The snarky voice of Tony Stark broke into the conversation. 

“No, I need a little assistance and you’re my second choice.” Darcy offered truthfully. “I figured you’d be monitoring the line.”

“You’re the little intern right, the one SHEILD thinks is just a little cute tag-a-long but Clint is constantly texting?” Tony sounded amused more than anything which Darcy wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. “Natasha said you were like half abused kid and half manipulative bastard. We will probably get along beautifully.”

“So can we arrange a play date?” Darcy had to breath slowly to tamp down her panic. No way was she staying off SHEILD radar after this. 

“Katniss trusts you.” Stark sounded like that was something that mean something. “SHEILD thinks you are nothing special. Shit why not.” The line went fuzzy again for a second. “Good, it’s just us now sweetheart. When, where, and what’s your safeword?”


End file.
